Toilet fire reported in Rockport

ROCKPORT, Maine — A would-be arsonist used a dollar bill and alder branches Saturday night in an attempt to set a fire in a portable toilet outside a Route 90 convenience store.

“That is odd. That is very bizarre,” said Traci Cultrera, a cashier at the Tolman Pond Market. “I’m blown away that they used their own money.”

She said that staff had discovered Sunday morning that there were a bunch of “brambled sticks” in the urinal, along with the dollar bill. Not much damage was caused by the fire in the toilet, which is adjacent to the store.

“Just a little charring on the Porta-Potty,” she said. “Good thing it didn’t manage to catch. If it did, we would have lost the whole store.”

Patrolman Dana Smith of the Rockport Police Department said that he had been called to the scene to investigate.

“It started to burn, but either somebody showed up, or they got sick of waiting for the green branches to burn,” he said. “The dollar bill was pretty much gone.”

He said that he encouraged the store’s staff to get better security cameras. Smith said that he thinks he has a suspect in the matter.